CHAPTER IV.
OPERATIONS SOUTH OF THE TAGUS.
1813. February. In December 1812 general Copons had been appointed captain-general of Catalonia instead of Eroles, but his arrival was delayed and the province was not relieved from Lacy’s mischievous sway until February 1813, when Eroles, taking the temporary command, re-established the head-quarters at Vich. The French, being then unmolested, save by the English ships, passed an enormous convoy to France, but Eroles was not long idle. Through the medium of a double spy, he sent a forged letter to the governor of Taragona, desiring him to detach men to Villa Nueva de Sitjes, with carts to transport some stores; at the same time he gave out that he was himself going to the Cerdaña, which brought the French moveable column to that quarter, and then, Eroles, Manso, and Villamil, making forced marches from different points, reached Torre dem barra where they met the British squadron. The intention was to cut off the French detachment on its march to Villa Nueva and then to attack Taragona, but fortune rules in war; the governor received a letter from Maurice Mathieu of a different tenor from the forged letter, and with all haste regaining his fortress balked this well-contrived plan.
Sarzfield, at enmity with Eroles, was now combining his operations with Villa Campa, and they menaced Alcanitz in Aragon; but general Pannetier who had remained at Teruel to watch Villa Campa, and to protect Suchet’s communications, immediately marched to Daroca, Severoli came from Zaragoza to the same point, and the Spaniards, alarmed by their junction, dispersed. Sarzfield returned to Catalonia, Bassecour and the Empecinado remained near Cuenca, and Villa Campa as usual hung upon the southern skirts of the Albaracyn mountain, ready to pounce down on the Ebro or on the Guadalquivir side as advantage might offer. Meanwhile Suchet was by no means at ease. The successes in Catalonia did not enable him to draw reinforcements from thence, because Napoleon, true to his principle of securing the base of operations, forbad him to weaken the army there, and Montmarie’s brigade was detached from Valencia to preserve the communication between Saguntum and Tortoza. But Aragon which was Suchet’s place of arms and principal magazine, being infested by Mina, Duran, Villa Campa, the Empecinado, and Sarzfield, was becoming daily more unquiet, wherefore Pannetier’s brigade remained between Segorbé and Daroca to aid Severoli. Thus although the two armies of Aragon and Catalonia mustered more than seventy thousand men, that of Aragon alone having forty thousand, with fifty field-pieces, Suchet could not fight with more than sixteen thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry and perhaps thirty guns beyond the Xucar. His right flank was always liable to be turned by Requeña, his left by the sea which was entirely at his adversary’s command, and his front was menaced by fifty thousand men, of which three thousand might be cavalry with fifty pieces of artillery.
The component parts of the allied force were the Anglo-Sicilians which, including Whittingham’s and Roche’s divisions, furnished eighteen thousand soldiers. Elio’s army furnishing twelve thousand exclusive of the divisions of Bassecour, Villa Campa, and the Empecinado, which, though detached, belonged to him. Del Parque’s army reinforced by new levies from Andalusia, and on paper twenty thousand. Numerically this was a formidable power if it had been directed in mass against Suchet; but on his right the duke of Dalmatia, whose head-quarters were at Toledo, sent forward detachments which occupied the army of Del Parque; moreover the secret negociations for the defection of the latter were now in full activity, and from the army of the centre a column was sent towards Cuenca to draw Bassecour and the Empecinado from Suchet’s right flank; but those chiefs had five thousand men, and in return continually harassed the army of the centre.
1813. On the side of the Morena and Murcia, Soult’s operations were confined to skirmishes and foraging parties. Early in January his brother, seeking to open a communication with Suchet by Albacete, defeated some of Elio’s cavalry with the loss of fifty men, and pursued them until they rallied on their main body, under Freyre; the latter offered battle with nine hundred horsemen in front of the defile leading to Albacete; but Soult, disliking his appearance turned off to the right, and passing through Villa Nueva de los Infantes joined a French post established in Valdepeña at the foot of the Morena, where some skirmishes had also taken place with Del Parque’s cavalry. The elder Soult thus learned, that Freyre, with two thousand five hundred horsemen, covered all the roads leading from La Mancha, to Valencia and Murcia; that Elio’s infantry was at Tobara and Hellin, Del Parque’s head-quarters at Jaen; that the passes of the Morena were guarded, and magazines formed at Andujar, Linares, and Cordoba, while on the other side of La Mancha, the Empecinado had come to Hinojoso with fifteen hundred horsemen, and the column sent from the army of the centre was afraid to encounter him.
These dispositions, and the strength of the Spaniards, not only prevented the younger Soult from penetrating into Murcia, but delayed the march of a column, under general Daricau, destined to communicate with Suchet, and bring up the detachments baggage and stores, which the armies of the south and centre had left at Valencia. The scouting parties of both sides now met at different points, and on the 27th of January, a sharp cavalry fight happened at El Corral, in which the French commander was killed, and the Spaniards, though far the most numerous, defeated. Meanwhile Daricau, whose column had been reinforced, reached Utiel, opened the communication with Suchet by Requeña, cut off some small parties of the enemy, and then continuing his march received a great convoy, consisting of two thousand fighting men, six hundred travellers, and the stores and baggage belonging to Soult’s and the king’s armies. This convoy had marched for Madrid by the way of Zaragoza, but was recalled when Daricau arrived, and under his escort, aided by a detachment of Suchet’s army placed at Yniesta, it reached Todelo in the latter end of February safely, though Villa Campa came down to the Cabriel River, to trouble the march.
During these different operations numerous absurd and contradictory reports, principally originating in the Spanish and English newspapers, obtained credit in the French armies, such as, that sir Henry Wellesley and Infantado had seized the government at Cadiz; that Clinton, by an intrigue, had got possession of Alicant; that Ballesteros had shewn Wellington secret orders from the cortez not to acknowledge him as generalissimo, or even as a grandee; that the cortez had removed the regency because the latter permitted Wellington to appoint intendants and other officers to the Spanish provinces; that Hill had devastated the frontier and retired to Lisbon though forcibly opposed by Morillo; that a nephew of Ballesteros had raised the standard of revolt; that Wellington was advancing, and that troops had been embarked at Lisbon for a maritime expedition, with other stories of a like nature, which seem to have disturbed all the French generals save Soult, whose information as to the real state of affairs continued to be sure and accurate. He also at this time detected four or five of Wellington’s emissaries, amongst them, was a Portuguese officer on his own staff; a man called Piloti, who served and betrayed both sides; and an amazon called Francisca de la Fuerte, who, though only twenty-two years old, had already commanded a partida of sixty men with some success, and was now a spy. But in the latter end of February the duke of Dalmatia was recalled, and the command of his army fell to Gazan, whose movements belong rather to the operations north of the Tagus. Wherefore turning to Suchet, I shall proceed to give an exact notion of his resources and of the nature of the country where his operations were conducted.
The city of Valencia, though nominally the seat of his power, was not so. He had razed all the defences constructed by the Spaniards, confining his hold to the old walls and to a small fortified post within the town sufficient to resist a sudden attack, and capable of keeping the population in awe; his real place of arms was Saguntum, and between that and Tortoza he had two fortresses, namely, Oropesa and Peniscola; he had also another line of communication, but for infantry only, through Morella, a fortified post, to Mequinenza. Besides these lines there were roads both from Valencia and Saguntum, leading through Segorbé to Teruel a fortified post, and from thence to Zaragoza by DarocaSee [Plan 6.] another fortified post. These roads were eastward of the Guadalaviar, and westward of that river Suchet had a line of retreat from Valencia to Madrid by Requeña, which was also a fortified post. Now if the whole of the French general’s command be looked to, his forces were very numerous, but that command was wide, and in the field his army was, as I have before shewn, not very numerous. Valencia was in fact a point made on hostile ground which, now that the French were generally on the defensive, was only maintained with a view of imposing upon the allies and drawing forth the resources of the country as long as circumstances would permit. The proper line for covering Valencia and the rich country immediately around it was on the Xucar, or rather beyond it, at San Felippe de Xativa and Moxente, where a double range of mountains afforded strong defensive positions, barring the principal roads leading to Valencia. On this position Suchet had formed his entrenched camp, much talked of at the time, but slighter than fame represented it; the real strength was in the natural formation of the ground.
February. Beyond his left flank the coast road was blocked by the castle of Denia, but his right could be turnedSee [Plan 7.] from Yecla and Almanza, through Cofrentes and Requeña, and he was forced to keep strict watch and strong detachments always towards the defile of Almanza, lest Elio’s army and Del Parque’s should march that way. This entrenched camp was Suchet’s permanent position of defence, but there were reasons why he should endeavour to keep his troops generally more advanced; the country in his front was full of fertile plains, or rather coves, within the hills, which run in nearly parallel ranges, and are remarkably rocky and precipitous, enclosing the plains like walls, and it was of great importance who should command their resources. Hence as the principal point in Suchet’s front was the large and flourishing town of Alcoy, he occupied it, and from thence threw off smaller bodies to Biar, Castalla, Ibi, and Onil, which were on the same strong ridge as the position covering the cove of Alcoy. On his right there was another plain in which Fuente La Higuera, Villena, and Yecla were delineated at opposite points of a triangle, and as this plain and the smaller valleys ministered to Suchet’s wants because of his superior cavalry, the subsistence of the French troops was eased, while the cantonments and foraging districts of the Sicilian army were contracted: the outposts of the allied army were in fact confined to a fourth and fifth parallel range of mountains covering the towns of Elda, Tibi, Xixona, and Villa Joyosa which was on the sea-coast.
Suchet thus assumed an insulting superiority over an army more numerous than his own, but outward appearances are deceitful in war; the French general was really the strongest, because want, ignorance, dissention, and even treachery, were in his adversary’s camps. Del Parque’s army remained behind the Morena, Elio’s was at Tobarra and Hellin, and of the Anglo-Sicilian army, the British only were available in the hour of danger, and they were few. When general Campbell quarrelled with Elio the latter retired for a time towards Murcia, but after Wellington’s journey to Cadiz he again came forward, and his cavalry entering La Mancha skirmished with general Soult’s and communicating with Bassecour and the Empecinado delayed the progress of Daricau towards Valencia. Meanwhile general Campbell remained quiet, in expectation that lord William Bentinck would come with more troops to Alicant, but in February fresh troubles broke out in Sicily, and in the latter end of that month sir John Murray arriving, assumed the command. Thus in a few months, five chiefs with different views and prejudices successively came to the command, and the army was still unorganized and unequipped for vigorous service. The Sicilians, Calabrese, and French belonging to it were eager to desert, one Italian regiment had been broken for misconduct by general Maitland, the British and Germans were humiliated in spirit by the part they[Appendix, No. 16], [17.] were made to enact, and the Spaniards under Whittingham and Roche were starving; for Wellington knowing by experience how the Spanish government, though receiving a subsidy, would, if permitted, throw the feeding of their troops entirely upon the British, forbade their being supplied from the British stores, and the Spanish intendants neglected them.
Murray’s first care was to improve the equipment of his troops, and with the aid of Elio he soon put them in a better condition. The two armies together furnished thirty thousand effective men, of which about three thousand were cavalry, and they had thirty-seven guns, yet very inadequately horsed, and Whittingham’s and Elio’s cavalry were from want of forage nearly unfit for duty. The transport mules were hired at an enormous price, the expense being at the rate of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds annually, and yet the supply was bad, forGeneral Donkin’s papers. here as in all other parts of Spain, corruption and misuse of authority prevailed. The rich sent their fine animals to Alicant for sanctuary and bribed the Alcaldes, the mules of the poor alone were pressed, the army was ill provided, and yet the country was harassed. In this state it was necessary to do something, and as the distress of Whittingham and Roche’s troops could not be removed, save by enlarging their cantonments, Murray after some hesitation resolved to drive the French from the mountains in his front, and he designed, as the first step, to surprise fifteen hundred men which they had placed in Alcoy. Now five roads led towards the French positions. 1º. On the left the great road from Alicant passing through Monforte, Elda, Sax, Villena, and Fuente de la Higuera, where it joins the great road from Valencia to Madrid, which runs through Almanza. This way turned both the ridges occupied by the armies. 2º. A good road leading by Tibi to Castalla, from whence it sent off two branches, on the left hand, one leading to Sax, the other through the pass of Biar to Villena; two other branches on the right hand went, the one through Ibi to Alcoy, the other through Onil to the same place. 3º. The road from Alicant to Xixona, a bad road, leading over the very steep rugged ridge of that name to Alcoy. At Xixona also there was a narrow way on the right hand, through the mountains to Alcoy, which was followed by Roche when he attacked that place in the first battle of Castalla. 4º. A carriage-road running along the sea-coast as far as Villa Joyosa, from whence a narrow mountain-way leads to the village of Consentayna, situated in the cove of Alcoy and behind that town.
March. On the 6th of March the allied troops moved in four columns, one on the left by Elda, to watch the great Madrid road; one on the right composed of Spanish troops under colonel Campbell, from Villa Joyosa, to get to Consentayna behind Alcoy; a third, under lord Frederick Bentinck, issuing by Ibi, was to turn the French right; the fourth was to march from Xixona straight against Alcoy, and to pursue the remainder of Habert’s division, which was behind that town. Lord Frederick Bentinck attacked in due time, but as colonel Campbell did not appear the surprise failed, and when the French saw the main body winding down the Sierra in front of Alcoy, they retired, pursued by general Donkin with the second battalion of the twenty-seventh regiment. The head of lord Frederick Bentinck’s column was already engaged, but the rear had not arrived, and the whole of Habert’s division was soon concentrated a mile beyond Alcoy, and there offered battle; yet sir John Murray, instead of pushing briskly forward, halted, and it was not until several demands for support had reached him, that he detached the fifty-eighth to the assistance of the troops engaged, who had lost about forty men, chiefly of the twenty-seventh. Habert, fearing to be cut off by Consentayna, and seeing the fifty-eighth coming on, retreated, and the allies occupied Alcoy, which greatly relieved their quarters; but the want of vigour displayed by sir John Murray when he had gained Alcoy did not escape the notice of the troops.
After this affair the armies remained quiet until the 15th, when Whittingham forced the French posts with some loss from Albayda, and general Donkin, taking two battalions and some dragoons from Ibi, drove back their outposts from Rocayrente and Alsafara, villages situated beyond the rangePlan 7. bounding the plain of Alcoy. He repassed the hills higher up with the dragoons and a company of the grenadiers of twenty-seventh, under captain Waldron, and returned by the main road to Alcoy, having in his course met a French battalion, through which the gallant Waldron broke with his grenadiers. Meanwhile sir John Murray, after much vacillation, at one time resolving to advance, at another to retreat, thinking it impossible first to force Suchet’s entrenched camp, and then his second line behind the Xucar, a difficult river with muddy banks, believing also that the French general had his principal magazines at Valencia, conceived the idea of seizing the latter by a maritime expedition. He judged that the garrison which he estimated at eight hundred infantry, and one thousand cavalry, would be unable to resist, and that the town once taken the inhabitants would rise; Suchet could not then detach men enough to quell them without exposing himself to defeat on the Xucar, and if he moved with all his force he could be closely followed by the allies and driven upon Requeña. In this view he made fresh dispositions.
On the 18th Roche’s division reinforced by some troops from Elio’s army and by a British grenadier battalion, was selected for the maritime attack, and the rest of the army was concentrated on the left at Castalla with the exception of Whittingham’s troops which remained at Alcoy, for Suchet was said to be advancing, and Murray resolved to fight him. But to form a plan and to execute it vigorously, were with sir John Murray very different things. Although far from an incapable officer in the cabinet, he shewed none of the qualities of a commander in the field. His indecision was remarkable. On the morning of the 18th he resolved to fight in front of Castalla, and in the evening he assumed a weaker position behind that town, abandoning the command of a road, running from Ibi in rear of Alcoy, by which Whittingham might have been cut off. And when the strong remonstrances of his quarter-master general induced him to relinquish this ground, he adopted a third position, neither so strong as the first nor so defective as the last.
In this manner affairs wore on until the 26th, when Roche’s division and the grenadier battalion marched to Alicant to embark, with orders, if they failed at Valencia, to seize and fortify Cullera at the mouth of the Xucar; and if this also failed to besiege Denia. But now the foolish ministerial arrangements about the Sicilian army worked out their natural result. Lord Wellington, though he was permitted to retain the Anglo-Sicilian army in Spain beyond the period lord William Bentinck had assigned for its stay, had not the full command given to him; he was clogged with reference to the state of Sicily, until the middle of March, and this new arrangement was still unknown to lord William Bentinck and to sir John Murray. Thus there were at this time, in fact, three commanding officers; Wellington for the general operations, Murray for the particular operations, and lord William Bentinck still empowered to increase or diminish the troops, and even upon emergency to withdraw the whole. And now in consequence of the continued dissentions in Sicily, the king of that country having suddenly resumed the government, lord William did recal two thousand of Murray’s best troops, and amongst them the grenadier battalion intended to attack Valencia. That enterprize instantly fell to the ground.
Upon this event sir John Murray, or some person writing under his authority, makes the following observations. “The most careful combination couldAppendix to Phillipart’s Military Calendar. not have selected a moment when the danger of such authority was more clearly demonstrated, more severely felt. Had these orders been received a very short time before, the allied army would not have been committed in active operations; had they reached sir John Murray a week later, there is every reason to believe that the whole country from Alicant to Valencia would have passed under the authority of the allied army, and that marshal Suchet cut off from his magazines in that province, and in Aragon, would have been compelled to retire through a mountainous and barren country on Madrid. But the order of lord William Bentinck was peremptory, and the allied army which even before was scarcely balanced, was now so inferior to the enemy that it became an indispensible necessity to adopt a system strongly defensive, and all hope of a brilliant commencement of the campaign vanished.”
Upon this curious passage it is necessary to remark, 1º. that Suchet’s great magazines were not at Valencia but at Saguntum; 2º. that from the castle of Denia the fleet would have been descried, and the strong garrison of Saguntum could have reinforced the troops in Valencia; Montmarie’s brigade also would soon have come up from Oropesa. These were doubtless contingencies not much to be regarded in bar of such an enterprize, but Suchet would by no means have been forced to retire by Requeña upon Madrid, he would have retired to Liria, the road to which steered more than five miles clear of Valencia. He could have kept that city in check while passing, in despite of sir John Murray, and at Liria he would have been again in his natural position, that is to say, in full command of his principal lines of communication. Moreover, however disagreeable to Suchet personally it might have been to be forced back upon Madrid, that event would have been extremely detrimental to the general cause, as tending to reinforce the king against Wellington. But the singular part of the passage quoted, is the assertion that the delay of a week in lord William Bentinck’s order would have ensured such a noble stroke against the French army. Now lord William Bentinck only required the troops to proceed in the first instance to Mahon; what a dull flagging spirit then was his, who dared not delay obedience to such an order even for a week!
April. The recalled troops embarked for Sicily on the 5th of April, and Suchet alarmed at the offensive position of the allies, which he attributed to the general state of affairs, because the king’s march to Castile permitted all the Spanish armies of Andalusia to reinforce Elio, resolved to strike first, and with the greater avidity because Elio had pushed general Mijares with an advanced guard of three or four thousand men to Yecla where they were quite unsupported. This movement had been concerted in March, with Murray who was to occupy Villena, and be prepared to fall upon the French left, if the Spaniards were attacked at Yecla; and in return the Spaniards were to fall on the French right if Murray was attacked. Elio however neglected to strengthen his division at Yecla withGeneral Donkin’s Papers, MSS. cavalry, which he had promised to do, nor did Murray occupy Villena in force; nevertheless Mijares remained at Yecla, Elio with the main body occupied Hellin, and the cavalry were posted on the side of Albacete, until the departure of the troops for Sicily. Roche then joined the army at Castalla, and Elio’s main body occupied Elda and Sax to cover the main road from Madrid to Alicant.
On the night of the 11th Suchet having by a forced march assembled sixteen battalions of infantry, ten squadrons of cavalry, and twelve pieces of artillery at Fuente la Higuera, marched straight upon Caudete, while Harispe’s division by a cross road endeavoured to surprise the Spaniards at Yecla. The latter retired fighting towards Jumilla by the hills, but the French artillery and skirmishers followed close, and at last the Spaniards being pierced in the centre, one part broke and fled, and the other part after some farther resistance surrendered. Two hundred were killed, and fifteen hundred prisoners, including wounded, fell into the hands of the victors, who lost about eighty men and officers.
Suchet’s movement on Fuente la Higuera was known in the night of the 10th at Castalla, where all the Anglo-Sicilian army was in position, because Whittingham had come from Alcoy, leaving only a detachment on that side. Hence while Harispe was defeating Mijares at Yecla, Suchet in person remained at Caudete with two divisions and the heavy cavalry in order of battle, lest Murray should advance by Biar and Villena. The latter town, possessing an old wall and a castle, was occupied by the regiment of Velez-Malaga, a thousand strong, and in the course of the day Murray also came up with the allied cavalry and a brigade of infantry. Here he was joined by Elio, without troops, and when towards evening Harispe’s fight being over and the prisoners secured, Suchet advanced, Murray retired with the cavalry through the pass of Biar leaving his infantry, under colonel Adam, in front of that defile. He wished also to draw the Spanish garrison from Villena but Elio would not suffer it, and yet during the night, repenting of his obstinacy, came to Castalla entreating Murray to carry off that battalion. It was too late, Suchet had broken the gates of the town the evening before, and the castle with the best equipped and finest regiment in the Spanish army had already surrendered.
Murray’s final position was about three miles from the pass of Biar. His left, composed of Whittingham’s Spaniards, was entrenched on a rugged sierra ending abruptly above Castalla, which, with itsSee [Plan 7.] old castle crowning an isolated sugar-loaf hill, closed the right of that wing and was occupied in strength by Mackenzie’s division.
A space between Whittingham’s troops and the town was left on the sierra for the advanced guard, then in the pass of Biar; Castalla itself, covered by the castle, was prepared for defence, and the principal approaches were commanded by strong batteries, for Murray had concentrated nearly all his guns at this point. The cavalry was partly behind partly in front of the town on an extensive plain which was interspersed with olive plantations.
The right wing, composed of Clinton’s division and Roche’s Spaniards, was on comparatively low ground, and extended to the rear at right angles with the centre, but well covered by a “barranco” or bed of a torrent, the precipitous sides of which were, in some places, one hundred feet deep.
Suchet could approach this position, either through the pass of Biar, or turning that defile, by the way of Sax; but the last road was supposed to be occupied by Elio’s army, and as troops coming by it must make a flank march along the front of the position, it was not a favourable line of attack; moreover the allies, being in possession of the defiles of Biar, and of Alcoy, might have gained the Xucar, either by Fuentes de la Higuera or by Alcoy, seeing that Alicant, which was their base, was safe, and the remnants of Elio’s army could easily have got away. Murray’s army was however scarcely active enough for such an operation, and Suchet advanced very cautiously, as it behoved him to do, for the ground between Castalla and Biar was just such as a prompt opponent would desire for a decisive blow.
The advanced guard, in the pass of Biar, about two thousand five hundred men was composed of two Italian regiments and a battalion of the twenty-seventh British; two companies of German riflemen, a troop of foreign hussars and six guns, four of which were mountain-pieces. The ground was very strong and difficult but at two o’clock in the afternoon the French, having concentrated in front of the pass, their skirmishers swarmed up the steep rocks on either flank, with a surprising vigour and agility, and when they had gained the summit, the supporting columns advanced. Then the allies who had fought with resolution for about two hours abandoned the pass with the loss of two guns and about thirty prisoners, retreating however in good order to the main position, for they were not followed beyond the mouth of the defile. The next day, that is the 13th about one o’clock, the French cavalry, issuing cautiously from the pass, extended to the left in the plain as far as Onil, and they were followed by the infantry who immediately occupied a low ridge about a mile in front of the allies’ left; the cavalry then gained ground to the front, and closing towards the right of the allies menaced the road to Ibi and Alcoy.
Murray had only occupied his ground the night before, but he had studied it and entrenched it in parts. His right wing was quite refused, and so well covered by the barranco that nearly all the troops could have been employed as a reserve to the left wing, which was also very strongly posted and presented a front about two miles in extent. But notwithstanding the impregnable strength of the ground the English general shrunk from the contest, and while the head of the French column was advancing from the defile of Biar, thrice he gave his quarter-master general orders to put the army in retreat, and the last time so peremptorily, that obedience must have ensued if at that moment the firing between the picquets and the French light troops had not begun.
BATTLE OF CASTALLA.
Suchet’s dispositions were made slowly and as if he also had not made up his mind to fight, but a crooked jut of the sierra, springing from about the middle of the ridge, hid from him all the British troops, and two-thirds of the whole army, hence his first movement was to send a column towards Castalla, to turn this jut of the sierra and discover the conditions of the position. Meanwhile he formed two strong columns immediately opposite the left wing, and his cavalry, displaying a formidable line in the plain closed gradually towards the barranco. The French general however soon discovered that the right of the allies was unattackable. Wherefore retaining his reserve on the low ridge in front of the left wing, and still holding the exploring column of infantry near Castalla, to protect his flank against any sally from that point, he opened his artillery against the centre and right wing of the allies, and forming several columns of attack commenced the action against the allies’ left on both sides of the jut before spoken of.
The ascent in front of Whittingham’s post, being very rugged and steep, and the upper parts entrenched, the battle there resolved itself at once into a fight of light troops, in which the Spaniards maintained their ground with resolution; but on the other side of the jut, the French mounted the heights, slowly indeed and with many skirmishers, yet so firmly, that it was evident nothing but good fighting would send them down again. Their light troops spread over the whole face of the Sierra, and here and there attaining the summit were partially driven down again by the Anglo-Italian troops; but where the main body came upon the second battalion of the twenty-seventh there was a terrible crash. For the ground having an abrupt declination near the top enabled the French to form a line under cover, close to the British, who were lying down waiting for orders to charge; and while the former were unfolding their masses a grenadier officer, advancing alone, challenged the captain of the twenty-seventh grenadiers to single combat. Waldron an agile vigorous Irishman and of boiling courage instantly sprung forward, the hostile lines looked on without firing a shot, the swords of the champions glittered in the sun, the Frenchman’s head was cleft in twain, and the next instant the twenty-seventh jumping up with a deafening shout, fired a deadly volley, at half pistol-shot distance, and then charged with such a shock that, maugre their bravery and numbers, the enemy’s soldiers were overthrown and the side of the Sierra was covered with the killed and wounded. In Murray’s despatch this exploit was erroneously attributed to colonel Adam, but it was ordered and conducted by colonel Reeves alone.
The French general seeing his principal column thus overthrown, and at every other point having the worst of the fight, made two secondary attacks to cover the rallying of the defeated columns, but these also failing, his army was separated in three parts, namely the beaten troops which were in great confusion, the reserve on the minor heights from whence the attacking columns had advanced, and the cavalry, which being far on the left in the plain, was also separated from the point of action by the bed of the torrent, a bridge over which was commanded by the allies. A vigorous sally from Castalla and a general advance would have obliged the French reserves to fall back upon Biar in confusion before the cavalry could come to their assistance, and the victory might have been thus completed; but Murray, who had remained during the whole action behind Castalla, gave the French full time to rally all their forces and retire in order towards the pass of Biar. Then gradually passing out by the right of the town, with a tedious pedantic movement, he changed his front, forming two lines across the valley, keeping his left at the foot of the heights, and extending his right, covered by the cavalry, towards the Sierra of Onil. Meanwhile Mackenzie moving out by the left of Castalla with three British, and one German battalion, and eight guns followed the enemy more rapidly.
Suchet had by this time plunged into the pass with his infantry cavalry and tumbrils in one mass, leaving a rear-guard of three battalions with eight guns to cover the passage; but these being pressed by Mackenzie, and heavily cannonaded, were soon forced to form lines and offer battle, answering gun for gun. The French soldiers were heavily crushed by the English shot, the clatter of musketry was beginning, and one well-directed vigorous charge, would have overturned and driven the French in a confused mass upon the other troops then wedged in the narrow defile; but Mackenzie’s movement had been made by the order of the quarter-master-general Donkin, without Murray’s knowledge, and the latter instead of supporting it strongly, sent repeated orders to withdraw the troops already engaged, and in despite of all remonstrance caused them to fall back on the main body, when victory was in their grasp. Suchet thus relieved at a most critical moment immediately occupied a position across the defile with his flanks on the heights, and though Murray finally sent some light companies to attack his left the effort was feeble and produced no result; he retained his position and in the night retired to Fuente de la Higuera.
On the 14th Murray marched to Alcoy where a small part of Whittingham’s forces had remained in observation of a French detachment left to hold the pass of Albayda, and through this pass he proposed to intercept the retreat of Suchet, but his movements were slow, his arrangements bad, and the army became so disordered, that he halted the 15th at Alcoy. A feeble demonstration on the following days towards Albayda terminated his operations.
In this battle of Castalla, the allies had, including Roche’s division, about seventeen thousand of all arms, and the French about fifteen thousand.Suchet’s official despatch to the king, MSS. Suchet says that the action was brought on, against his wish, by the impetuosity of his light troops, and that he lost only eight hundred men; his statementSuchet’s Memoirs. is confirmed by Vacani the Italian historian. Sir John Murray affirms that it was a pitched battleMurray’s despatch. and that the French lost above three thousand men. The reader may choose between these accounts. In favour of Suchet’s version it may be remarked that neither the place, nor the time, nor the mode of attack, was such as might be expected from his talents and experience in war, if he had really intended a pitched battle; and though the action was strongly contested on the principal point, it is scarcely possible that so many as three thousand men could have been killed and wounded. And yet eight hundred seems too few, because the loss of the victorious troops with all advantages of ground, was more than six hundred. One thing is however certain that if Suchet lost three thousand men, which would have been at least a fourth of his infantry, he must have been so disabled, so crippled, that what with the narrow defile of Biar in the rear, and the distance of his cavalry in the plain, to have escaped at all was extremely discreditable to Murray’s generalship. An able commander having a superior force, and the allies were certainly the most numerous, would never have suffered the pass of Biar to be forced on the 12th, or if it were forced, he would have had his army well in hand behind it, ready to fall upon the head of the French column as it issued into the low ground.
Suchet violated several of the most important maxims of art. For without an adequate object, he fought a battle, having a defile in his rear, and on ground where his cavalry, in which he was superior, could not act. Neither the general state of the French affairs, nor the particular circumstances, invited a decisive offensive movement at the time, wherefore the French general should have been contented with his first successes against the Spaniards, and against Colonel Adam, unless some palpable advantage had been offered to him by Murray. But the latter’s position was very strong indeed, and the French army was in imminent danger, cooped up between the pass of Biar and the allied troops; and this danger would have been increased if Elio had executed a movement which Murray had proposed to him in the night of the 12th, namely, to push troops into the mountains from Sax, which would have strengthened Whittingham’s left and menaced the right flank of the enemy. Elio disregarded this request, and during the whole of the operations the two armies were unconnected, and acting without concert, although only a few miles distant from each other. This might have been avoided if they had previously put the castle and town of Villena in a good state of defence, and occupied the pass of Biar in force behind it. The two armies would then have been secure of a junction in advance, and the plain of Villena would have been commanded. To the courage of the troops belongs all the merit of the success obtained, there was no generalship, and hence though much blood was spilt no profit was derived from victory.